The Keys of Marinus (TV story)
The Keys of Marinus 'is the fifth serial of the first season of ''Doctor Who. ''It was written by Terry Nation, directed by John Gorrie and featured William Hartnell as the First Doctor, William Russell as Ian Chesterton, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright and Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman. Overview ''To be added Synopsis On a remote island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid, there is a machine that can remove evil from the minds of an entire population – the Conscience of Marinus. Fearful of its immense power falling into the wrong hands, its sole guardian has scattered the machine’s operating keys across the planet. The TARDIS crew arrive to find the island under attack by the evil Voord. Marinus’ last line of defence – and its only hope – is the Conscience machine. The Doctor and his companions must undertake a deadly quest to recover the Keys of Marinus... Plot The Sea of Death (1) The TARDIS arrives on a completely deserted island overseen by a giant pyramid in it's centre. Inside the control room, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan stand at the console while the Doctor checks the readings outside. Looking outside, it looks seemingly safe, but Ian believes to have seen something when the scanner first switched on. Outside, four pod-like capsules float across the seas and wash up on the shoreline. Stepping outside the TARDIS, the travellers examine their surroundings; after they've walked off to investigate, a mysterious amphibious-looking humanoid appears to follow them. While the Doctor finds some glass on the stones, Susan opts to step in a small plot of water she finds but Ian stops her upon seeing her shoe dissolving in it, concluding it's highly acidic. Susan goes back to the TARDIS for more shoes while Ian and Barbara ponder on the nature of their location and the acid sea that surrounds it. Back at the ship, the amphibious humanoid figure examines it, tugging on the lock but retreats from sight when Susan returns. Elsewhere, the Doctor finds the capsules washed up on the beach. Examining them, Barbara finds the fourth one with something in it. Exiting the TARDIS, Susan spots the figures footprints in the sand and decides to follow them, when the creature emerges from behind some rocks. The fourth pod is found to have a crack in it, meaning acid must have gotten inside it. Using the Doctor's cane to pull the inhabitant out, they find a protective suit similar to the humanoid creature. Going back to the ship, Ian spots the pyramid at the centre of the island and the Doctor suggests going to investigate it after Susan been found. Making her own way to the pyramid, Susan fails to see the creature hiding behind the corner of the wall ready to attack her. Before it can though, it backs into a pivoting wall and vanishes. Arriving at the building after her, the Doctor, Ian and Barbara try to find Susan, who also backs into a pivoting wall and screams, alerting Ian and Barbara, while the Doctor vanished behind a pivoting wall. Looking around, Ian and Barbara find no sign of Susan or the Doctor. Inside the building, Susan gingerly walks around before she is grabbed by the suited creature that then collapses dead at her feet. A man in a white robe appears in front of her, frightening her. Outside, Ian and Barbara separately find the pivoting walls and enter the structure. While Ian finds the dead creature, the Doctor, Susan and Barbara talk about Susan's attacker. They also ponder about the hooded man who lives in the building; elsewhere, the same man, Arbitan, is attacked by another of the creatures but Ian rounds a corner and manages to subdue it, thrusting him through a trap door and into the sea of acid. Arbitan tells Ian about the creatures, the Voord as he calls them and they go to release the others. The Doctor is highly curious about the planet they're on. Arbitan shows the travellers a grand device called the Conscious of Marinus, a justice device able to affect the minds of people across the planet. When a man known as Yartek managed to overcome the machine's influence, he and the Voord rose up against it and the peoples of Marinus weren't able to fight back. Instead of destroying the machine, the five microcircuits or 'keys' were removed from it and hidden all over the planet. Since the time approaches to bring them all together again, Arbitan sent many to recover them, includng his own daughter, but none returned. So he decides the Doctor and his companions must find the keys. Later, the travellers make their way back to the TARDIS, only to return and find a forcefield thrown up around it, blocking their entrance. Arbitan speaks to them from the building and says that he will release the ship to them if they help him recover the keys. Returning to the building, Arbitan gives them a map of the keys' locations and devices with which to travel to all the points where the keys are. Barbara preemptively activates the device and transports to the first locations and warns the travellers to destroy the keys if the Voord take control of the machine. After they have gone, the Voord attack and kill Arbitan. Arriving at the first location, Barbara is nowhere to be seen, but Ian finds her travel device on the ground with blood on it. The Velvet Web (2) Storming inside the building of their first arrival in search of Barbara, who they assume is injured, they find her note only fine but being tended to by handmaidens and dressed in fine fabrics. They indulge on the fine materials and food around when the handmaidens return with a small banquet of foods. Their feast is interrupted by the arrival of a young man called Altos, who tells them they are in the city of Morphoton, where all of it's inhabitants are granted indulgence to whatever they desire. The Doctor skeptically makes a request for a full equipped laboratory and he claims that it will be ready by morning. Tired from the journey, the Doctor and Susan go to sleep, while Ian voices his concerns over their location to Barbara before they too fall asleep. Once they are all down, a strange warbling noise sounds around the room and a strange woman comes into the room and places four small discs on the travellers foreheads. After she leaves, however, Barbara turns in her sleep and the disc falls off. Upon awakening, she is bombarded with loud alarms before falling unconscious. The following morning, while the travellers eat and Susan is given her dress, Barbara finally awakens to discover everything around her is tattered and ruined, including Susan's dress, which appears as a mass of rags and the food and drink, which is rotten and filthy. Altos arrives in the midst of Barbara's delirium and runs off and hides. Altos fails to find her but she gets locked inside the room; elsewhere, Altos goes to speak to a duo of alien Brains in glass domes. They order the girl who placed the discs on the travellers' heads punished for failing her, the Doctor, Ian and Susan mesmerised again and Barbara killed. The girl, Sabetha, is thrown into the same room as Barbara and appears completely indoctrinated and lost in her thoughts. Elsewhere, Altos brings the Doctor and Ian to the requested 'laboratory', which is in reality an empty room with useless items which the two perceive to be highly sophisticated equipment. Barbara tries to get through to Sabetha, asking after her necklace and tries to get her to remember Arbitan, her father. In the hidden chamber, the Brains make their plans for the Doctor, Ian and Susan. Barbara hears Altos approaching the room of Sabetha and hides; she tries to escape and gives herself away. While Altos holds her still, Sabetha knocks him unconscious with a stool. Wandering through the hallways, Barbara runs into Ian, who has been heavily hypnotized and captures her, bringing her to the Brains. As they order Ian to kill her, she manages to free herself from his grip and attack the Brains, destroying them and breaking their hold over Ian. Making their way to the main chamber, Ian and Barbara meet up with the Doctor and when Susan arrives with Altos and Sabetha, who were both under the Brains' influence, tells them the plan to split up to search for the keys separately, the Doctor going two jumps ahead to find one key and a friend that Altos left with and Susan, Ian, Barbara with Altos and Sabetha heading only one. Setting a meet-up time, the party jumps ahead to their respective locations. Susan, who preemptively jumped ahead, winds up in a jungle where she is overwhelmed by harsh and loud screams all around her. The Screaming Jungle (3) Barbara finds Susan clutching her ears and the screams are gone when she uncovers them. While Susan gets over the shock, Ian, Altos and Sabetha find a large wall with an overgrown archway into heading into it. While Barbara and Susan stay behind with the other three go and look for another entrance. After they leave, Barbara and Susan try and look for an entrance inside when a stray creeper slinks down a tree and wraps itself around her leg before Barbara pulls it off and smashes it. Barbara pushes her way through the arch and find a statue at the end of the path. When Ian, Altos and Sabetha return, Barbara is examining the statue and spots something she thinks is the key, when the statue suddenly grabs her and rotates, trapping her inside the wall. While wondering what to do, Altos gives the key to Sabetha for safe keeping and she in turn says that Barbara may very well have used her travel dial to escape if she were in danger. While pondering the possibility, the statue turns back around without Barbara. Wanting to cover bases, Ian sends Susan off with Altos and Sabetha, but when the others are gone, Sabetha notices the key that they found is a fake. Sending her ahead anyway, Ian stays behind and attempts the same means of entry that Barbara did. On the inside, he finds a variety of strange artefacts when he accidentally triggers a trap, just as Barbara manages to call out and warn him and he narrowly avoids it. He joins her in trying to pry a large door open when a man on the other side of the door opens in and Barbara goes inside and gets caught in a trap. Hearing Barbara scream, tries to grab a pickaxe, but it triggers another trap and locks him in too. Just before Barbara is crushed in her trap, a man, Darrius, reverses the trap and asks Barbara her interest in the keys. He takes her travel disc to determine the validity of her story, when he is ensnared by a creeper. Ian, having broken free of his trap, and Barbara manage to save him. Telling Darrius that Arbitan sent them, Ian and Barbara ask where the key is, but he only gives a cryptic clue before he dies, 'D-E-3-0-2'. Checking the other room for the answer to his clue, they try the safe but the combination is wrong, so they have to search the room entirely. Looking for the combination, the whispering Susan heard starts again and the vegetation starts attacking the room, trying the break in. Ian and Barbara desperately scramble against creepers and vines to find the answer, when Ian realises the numbers and letters were a chemical formula. Rummaging through jars, Barbara manages to find the key and the two transport away before the vines overrun them and they immediately find themselves on a craggy ridge in a horrendous snowstorm. The Snows of Terror (4) Trying desperately to shelter themselves against the wind and cold, they two struggle to stay awake and fall unconscious. Barbara, however, is alerted when a lone man called Vasor in a big coat approaches and takes the key from Barbara's hand. He brings them both back to his lodgings where he tends to Barbara's frostbitten hand. She wakes Ian and repeats the same process to his hand, when Vasor bringing a hot beverage to them. Vasor tells them that others were found on the mountain before them, Altos and the others, so Ian exchanges his transport device for fur clothing so he can go and search for them. After he is gone, Ian treks across the mountainside until he finds Altos unconscious in the snow, bound and gagged. Barbara is alerted by the sound of wolves on the mountains while she and Vasor eat. While he is out of the room, Barbara finds Sabetha's chain and the transport discs where she accuses Vasor of stealing them. When Ian helps Altos to his feet, he realises that Barbara is in danger with him and they go back to help her, throwing away the bag of meat that Vasor had given him to lure the wolves. Vasor attacks Barbara but Ian and Altos make it back to the lodge just in time to help her. Ian stops Altos from attacking him as he's the only one who knows where Susan and Sabetha are. Meanwhile, the girls are attempting to light a fire in the cave in which they're hiding, with no luck. Deciding they have no choice, they choose to go and chance it outside but they get lost in the cave system. Arriving at the cave, Ian forces Vasor to take them deeper into the cave. In the deeper levels, Susan and Sabetha find a rope bridge, which they both cross looking for a way out. Following closely, the others find the rope bridge that the girls crossed while they find themselves in a hidden chamber. When the travellers are back together, leaving Vasor on the other side, he collapses the bridge and abandons them. Looking for another way across, they venture into the hidden chamber to find the key. Inside, they find four knights guarding the key, which is encased in a massive block of ice. They readjust the valves connected to the block, which starts to warm it up and melt it. While the women watch the ice melt away, Ian and Altos make a rudimentary bridge across. Once Sabetha grabs the key, the warriors return to life and attack them. While everybody watches for Ian, Susan slowly makes her way across the bridge. Ian dislodges a large block of ice, trapping the knights inside, while Susan makes it to the other side of the chasm. Taking the ropes, Sabetha, Altos and Susan bring the rope bridge back up and cross over the chasm, while Ian throws it back down. Back at Vasor's lodge, the knights follow them, killing Vasor when he tries to hold Susan hostage. As the knights break in, the travellers escape using the dials. Arriving on his own in a room with a dead body, Ian spots the last key inside a glass case, when an unseen assailant knocks him unconscious and places a weapon in his hand before stealing the key. Sentence of Death (5) Ian recovers to find the key gone and an interrogation agent named Tarron questioning him about what happened in the room, not believing that Ian just walked through the door, nor that the door was slightly ajar. Tarron continues to probe him about the location of the key, not believing Ian's story and charging him with murder. Ian insists that everything that Tarron is accusing him of is based on circumstantial evidence, but Tarron tells him that the legal system in the city of Millenius works under a 'Guilty until proven innocent' policy, meaning that unless he can prove his innocence, he is already guilty. While Ian is brought before Barbara, Susan, Sabetha and Altos wondering what to do about Ian's charge, the Doctor appears presents himself as the defence for Ian's case. Inside the courtroom, Ian is put before the three judges who call the Doctor to present his case for Ian's proof of innocence. He convinces the judges to give him time to assess the case and present his evidence and is granted two days to find it. The travellers congregate and the Doctor explains that Eprim, Altos' friend and victim of the murder, arranged with him to collect the key at a certain time but something forced him to take action sooner, thus getting him killed. The Doctor sends Altos and Sabetha to look into the city's legal system, while Barbara and Susan help him find proof. Tarron retells his account to the Doctor, Barbara and Susan, but the Doctor is less than convinced by the facts Tarron presents. Taking a moment alone, the Doctor and he girls wonder how the key could have been left the room but the Doctor seems more convinced that he knows the killer's identity. Through a role play of the scenario, the Doctor deduces the relief guard, Aydan, to be the culprit, but cannot take it to Tarron as the proof is not substantial. He instead gives Susan and Barbara a job to do, which he hopes will reveal the key's location and the murderer at the same time. Susan and Barbara goes and visits Aydan's wife, Kala, to ask questions about the key, when Aydan returns and forces them out, accusing them of trying the cast suspicion on him. Listening at the door, Barbara and Susan hear Aydan lose his temper and hit Kala, but are alerted by approaching people and flee. Aydan gets on the phone to Eyesen over an unspecified matter. Back in the courtroom, Aydan presents his evidence for the prosecution. The Doctor then presents his case for the defence; he calls Sabetha to the stand and asks her to present the 'stolen key'. In a panic, Aydan gives himself away and begins to recall the events when he is suddenly gunned down. When the tribunal starts again, Eyesen makes another plea that Ian coerced Aydan to participate in the crime. While he is giving his testimony and the judges request a closing statement from the Doctor, Barbara, Altos and Sabetha are called outside. The judges deny the Doctor more time to find more proof and begin to arrange Ian's charge of execution. Barbara is given a note with a death threat to somebody when she then recieves a phone call from Susan revealing that she's been taken by the murders and it's her life on the line. The Keys of Marinus (6) Barbara, Altos and Sabetha all agree not to tell the Doctor about Susan's capture so he can concentrate of Ian's case and the three try and discern who the culprit is if not Eyesen. While Ian is awaiting his execution, Barbara thinks to speak to Kala about someone who Aydan may have been in contact with in regards to the crime. Kala doesn't provide any answers and breaks down crying, but after Altos, Sabetha and Barbara leave, her sobs become vindictive laughter. Opening the room's back door, Kala has Susan bound and gagged when she receives a message from Eyesen saying that plans are going ahead. Barbara soon deduces that from Kala knowing Susan spoke to them that she is implicated in her capture. Rushing back, they manage to apprehend her before she can kill Susan. Eyesen speaks to the Doctor in regards to his loss of the case. As he ponders, a guard locks the weapon and file away; Barbara contacts Tarron and informs him that Kala was responsible for Aydan, but she explicitly names Ian as her accomplice. When Susan mentions the person Kala was really connected to mention collecting the key, the Doctor heartily delights that they have an opportunity to catch the real culprit. After dark, the Doctor waits outside the courtroom when the culprit arrives to take the key. After he grabs the mace, Tarron and the guard apprehend him. Unmasking Eyesen as the killer and thief, he and Kala are both arrested while the Doctor reveals that the key was hidden inside the mace the entire time. Receiving permission to take the key and Ian's transporter dial, the travellers leave to join Altos and Sabetha. Back in Arbitan's temple, the Voord leader Yartek has taken over the building, seized the Conscience machine and interrogates Altos after the location of the final key. While he refuses to talk initially, the Voord bring Sabetha in and, despite her best efforts to convince the Voord that he doesn't know anything, Yartek exploits Sabetha, with whom Altos is in love, by threatening to kill her. Desperately, Altos reveals that the final key is with the Doctor. The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan reunite in the temple and press onto the main chamber with the fifth key, while Yartek and the Voord are in the possession of the other four. As Yartek inserts the keys into the machine, it begins to activate again. The travellers discover the Voord to have taken over the building; Ian and Susan go and look for Arbitan while the Doctor and Barbara look for Sabetha and Altos. Ian and Barbara find the disguised Yartek in the main chamber and he tries to convince them to surrender the key. Ian throws the key on the ground and leaves with Susan, while Yartek hastily orders Sabetha and Altos brought to him. The Doctor frees Sabetha and Altos and upon reveals that he gave the fake key to Yartek, which, if inserted, will force the machine to overload and destroy itself and the building, so everybody heads for the exit. With his 'victory' assured, Yartek inserts the fake key and the machine starts to overload, destroying itself and the pyramid. Outside the TARDIS, Sabetha promises the Doctor that she will try and continue Arbitan's work with people rather than machines. She and Altos bid their goodbyes to the travellers before leaving together as the travellers step into the ship and leave. Cast * Dr. Who - William Hartnell * Ian Chesterton - William Russell * Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill * Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford * Arbitan - George Coulouris * Voords - Martin Cort, Peter Stenson, Gordon Wales * Altos - Robin Phillips * Sabetha - Katharine Schofield * Voice of Morpho - Heron Carvic * Warrior - Martin Cort * Darrius - Edmund Warwick * Vasor - Francis De Wolff * Ice Soldiers - Michael Allaby, Alan James, Peter Stenson, Anthony Verner * Tarron - Henley Thomas * Larn - Michael Allaby * Senior judge - Raf De La Torre * First judge - Alan James * Second judge - Peter Stenson * Kala - Fiona Walker * Aydan - Martin Cort * Eyesen - Donald Pickering * Guard - Alan James * Yartek - Stephen Dartnell Crew * Writer - Terry Nation * Designer - Raymond P. Cusick * Incidental Music - Norman Kay * Associate Producer - Mervyn Pinfield * Costumes - Daphne Dare * Make-Up - Jill Summers * Title Music - Ron Grainer with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop * Story Editor - David Whitaker * Director - John Gorrie * Producer - Verity Lambert References To be added Story notes To be added Broadcast & Ratings Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''The Keys of Marinus'' page on '''Doctor Who Website Category:First Doctor Television Stories Category:Season 1 stories Category:1964 television stories Category:Stories set in multiple locations Category:Six-part serials Category:Voord stories